Which vehicle is the best? Part 1: the UNSC

Which vehicle is the best? Part 1: the UNSC Again, the information in this article was done completely by memory so it may not be completely accurate.

Halo has a lot of vehicles, and thus I will narrow it down. I will only talk about drivable vehicles in-game. I mean vehicles of which you can control all movement, so Halo Wars/Halo: Spartan Assault vehicles are up for a medal. I will also not talk about non-combat vehicles, so no Mongooses and Troop Hogs. The exoskeletions are also not up for a medal here since they are not really vehicles. Also no 'special' vehicles, no Rhinos, drop pods, Longsword, Elephants and Mammoths. The best vehicle should not be the strongest, nor the fastest, it should be the vehicle build best for its purpose. A Wolverine is no anti-personnel force, even though it is wonderful at shooting down the flying enemies. I will assume every vehicle is fully loaded, so 2 persons in the Scorpion, 3 in the Hornet, Falcon, Warthogs, etc.

This week I will only rank the UNSC vehicles, followed by the Covenant’s vehicles and then the all-out battle between the two!

Speed/Manoeuvrability

Some vehicles are fast, but they are not all that manoeuvrable. Some vehicles are slow, but highly manoeuvrable. A right balance is the trick, which property is important for which vehicle?

For this part, I will group the Warthogs and tanks together, as their movement is identical. They are the fastest ground vehicles of the bunch, most notable during Halo Wars. Command all your troops from one end of the map to the other and they will be the first there, tied with the airborne vehicles. In speed, they win, but which of the two is more manoeuvrable? This has to go the high-flyers, they can easily scale a mountain while the ground troops are struggling every meter of the way or they have to go around.

So in pure speed and manoeuvrability, the Hornet/Falcon/Sparrowhawk win, but which vehicle has the correct balance? Cobras are extremely powerful when they are locked down, when speed and manoeuvrability are non-existent. When they are not locked down, they are pretty fast and manoeuvrable; the same speed as the Gremlins and Wolverines. The Warthogs have an excellent combination of speed and manoeuvrability; they have one of the fastest acceleration in the army, able to reach top-speed in a very short time.

I think this point has to go to the Warthog; any of the three.

Offence/defence

Grouping attack and defence together, which of these will be on top? Let's get the obvious ones out of the way first, the tanks. In this case, I won't group them together, as the Grizzly is vastly superior to the Scorpion (a shame we can't use it). Between these two, the Grizzly would win; it has the same manoeuvrability but much higher defensive and offensive capabilities.

Between the flying vehicles I think the Sparrowhawk would win, the Vulture sure seems powerful, but it has a very low defence and thus not very effective. Even though a Falcon and a Hornet are not 'related', I always perceived the Hornet as an upgraded Falcon while a Sparrowhawk is an upgraded Hornet; it would make sense to assume they upgraded its armour as well.

Between the non-tank ground forces, the one with the highest destructive power is the Wolverine when it is locked down while the bombardment ability of the Wolverine will make you reconsider your head-on assault. Visiting the enemy with a troop of Gauss Hogs and they are sure to lose a men or two, while the Rocket Hog will definitely make short work of the barricade while the Chaingun Hogs are simply shooting at anything that moves or poses a threat.

It was pretty obvious which class of vehicles would win this, the tanks. Of the two tanks, the Grizzly is the upgraded version of the Scorpion and thus superior. The Grizzly takes this point.

Effective range

A combination of both previous points, which vehicle would be best to win a war in the shortest time? A Grizzly is strong but slow while a Warthog is fast but not too strong. Which vehicle has the correct combo? Let's start by examining the runner-ups for the offence/defence point, the Wolverine and Cobra. Sending out an army of Wolverine sure seems good, but they are hopeless against anything flying while they are taking their time in locking down and after. The Wolverine is very strong against anything flying, but not the best choice against an opposing land-based army. They both don't move on to the next stage, no medal for them.

What about the Hogs? The chaingun is very effective against personnel, moderately effective against vehicles and non-effective against obstacles. The Rocket hog is the reverse, good against obstacles, moderately against vehicles and pretty bad against personnel. The Gauss is effective against them all, not only highly precise, but with a long range to back it up. The only downside is that the Gauss cannot fire too quickly, but it still is the best out of the Hogs.

And then we have the high-flyers. A large army of Vultures, protected from attack will destroy an enemy base in less than a minute, using its enormously powerful bombardment attack. But that is just it, when it is a surprise attack, it can surely pack a punch, but against an opposing army they are useless. Because Falcons and Hornets are inferior to the Sparrowhawk, Sparrowhawks are the most effective ones.

So now we have a Gauss Hog and a Sparrowhawk, but what about the tanks? Sure, they are immensely powerful, but they are slow. When attacking Base A, the enemy could have prepared a counter-offence before you'd arrive. It is best to have some speed and all the manoeuvrability the surroundings can provide, and you can't have total freedom if you are stuck on the ground. I think this point has to go the Sparrowhawks, sure, they can be shredded by Wolverines, but only if you let them. An army of Wolverines against Sparrowhawks will be determined by the most strategic players, attack from all directions and they cannot shoot them all down. Sparrowhawks are superior at this point.

So what now? We have 3 candidates from the UNSC team: The Grizzly, the Gauss Hog and the Sparrowhawk. Tune in next time when I pick the best Covenant vehicles!